Starry-Eyed: A Look At Life.com’s Best Photos Of 2010

To celebrate the end of 2010, Life.com asked various celebrities and media personalities — including Andy Richter, Harry Benson, Khaled Hosseini, Alan Cumming, Salman Rushdie, Brian Williams, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Wales, Arianna Huffington, Terry McDonell and Fareed Zakaria — to choose their personal favorite images from among Life‘s 2010 Pictures of the Year. Life.com has the final list of photos, including each person’s explanation for why, exactly, each specific image resonated for him or her.

Pictured here is author Salman Rushdie’s choice, “Heavenly Bodies,” a striking image of the Carina Nebula region taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Rushdie explains why he selected this particular image: “The universe creates beauty on the most gigantic of scales, humbling us by reminding us of our smallness, and simultaneously lifting our hearts by showing us so much glory.”